


rubber band in my past time

by makifa



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Identity Reveal, Stoneheart: Origins, episode rewrite, follows stoneheart: origins like nobody's business, it's like. the shortest slow burn ever
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-27
Updated: 2018-04-27
Packaged: 2019-04-28 15:40:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14452389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/makifa/pseuds/makifa
Summary: They reveal their identities a little too early.





	rubber band in my past time

**Author's Note:**

> [Bleachers - Hate That You Know Me](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s__nbrPlCT0)
> 
> I wanted to write something where they got off on the wrong foot and stayed that way, but [what can I say?](https://youtu.be/GwM5wRmIKMo?t=1m24s)

Ladybug sighs dreamily at Ivan and Mylène’s embrace. “They’re so made for each other!”  
“Like us two,” Chat Noir purrs, daring himself to reach out and rest his hand on her shoulder. She startles a little at first, but she relaxes and her eyes are sparkling when she looks up at him. They are the deepest cerulean blue and he hopes to God that she can’t see him blush under his mask.  
“You’re going to be trouble, I just know it,” she giggles just as his ring starts to beep, startling both of them. “Oh! See that? Time to split. See you soon, Chat Noir!”  
With that, Ladybug clumsily makes to leave. Chat has no idea what to do with himself, much less his hand. Move it, he wills himself, and he retracts it with the grace of a tape measure, a claw catching on the string of Ladybug’s yoyo as she winds it back with an unpracticed hand. She makes a strained noise when her yoyo doesn’t pull and he makes one when he tries to yank his hand back, and in the kerfuffle that follows the two tangle themselves up in the infinite string.  
“Just like when we first met,” Chat laughs nervously, his nose just centimeters from hers.  
Ladybug has no reception for boyish charm right now and continues to panic as the warning sound of her earrings join Chat’s ring. “Oh no!” The two wriggle madly trying to escape the binds.  
After one particular shimmy the string has enough slack to fall, but in that moment a flash of light starts to eat at Chat’s boots. Both of the new superheroes’ eyes go wide.  
_I can’t believe I’ve already messed this up_ , Adrien thinks.  
In the next moment, Ladybug has her arm wrapped tightly around her partner’s torso and she winds back her yoyo again; this time successfully casting it towards the street, catching a balcony railing and zipping the both of them at breakneck speeds into a slim alley between two shops. When they land she whirls around to kick a folded cardboard box into a makeshift shield from the street, her own de-transformation starting.  
“So much for secret identities,” she sighs, freezing solid when her eyes fall back onto where her partner was just sitting.  
“Thanks for the save, M’lady,” the blonde new boy from school says in Chat Noir’s voice. “That was ama―um, what’s wrong?”  
“It’s you?” she groans, her de-transformation finishing.  
“It’s you!” he echoes, recognition flashing in his green eyes. He stammers, struggling to remember her name. “Marie―Mari…”  
“Marinette,” she finishes for him, seething. “I can’t believe this.” With a huff, she turns around, wanting pretty badly to be home in bed right now. “Of course, my new partner just had to be Chloé’s best friend.” She makes a frustrated noise.  
The guilt churning in Adrien’s stomach takes a turn for the worse. After compromising his way through a rough first day at school, he finds himself getting worked up. “Why do people keep saying that? Wait!” He picks himself up off the ground and rushes after the pigtailed girl as she turns the corner.  
“Wait for what? We’ll see each other again soon enough,” she sighs, disdain radiating off of her small frame. “Goodbye, cat.”  
Adrien makes a grab for her purse strap, since direct contact is what got them into this mess in the first place. “I’m not ‘cat’, and I’m not ‘Chloé’s friend’!” He takes a breath. “Well, I―I am both of those things, but not the way you’re saying them. First and foremost, I’m Adrien,” he says, staring hard into Marinette’s eyes, which seem to twinkle even when she’s angry. He continues, his ring hand planted onto his chest. “And I’m also your partner now. And finally, I grew up with Chloé, and she’s kind of rough around the edges, but she’s…” She’s all I’ve got is on the tip of his tongue. “...I care for her.”  
“Well, I guess someone has to!” Marinette shoots back. That was really mean, she knows, but she can’t believe she was almost fooled into liking Chat Noir when he was just another bully underneath.  
“Why do you hate Chloé so much?”  
“Because she’s cruel and selfish and hated me since kindergarten and won’t ever let me forget it.”  
Adrien almost couldn’t believe the words coming out of Marinette’s mouth… the key word being, ‘almost’. “I really was trying to get the gum off,” he insists.  
“Thanks for the help, _Adrien_ ,” is all she says, and she doesn’t give him a chance to answer as she leaves.

The next day, even Adrien’s elation at his father allowing him to go to school every day can’t swallow the anxiety in his stomach when he thinks about going to class and seeing her again. He had beaten himself up all night about ruining it with Ladybug and his new classmates.  
Or, at least, one classmate in particular.  
When he walks in through the door, Adrien feels a surge of hope as he sees how Marinette and her friend have taken the bench behind him and Nino. It’s dashed the moment Marinette notices him and scowls. She shoots a glare at Chloé and Adrien feels himself getting worked up again. He takes his seat, counting to ten in Mandarin in his head.  
“Good morning, _Adrien_ ,” she says, devoid of emotion.  
“Good morning, Marinette,” he snaps back.  
“Uh…” Nino frowns at the vibe. This whole scene didn’t feel like Marinette and it didn’t look right on the new boy’s face, either. “Uh, dude, you want to make friends, right? Well, go talk to Marinette―you know, about the chewing gum.”  
“Because it worked so well the first time,” Adrien grumbled. “What do I even say to her?”  
“Just be yourself,” Nino says with a smile that Adrien returns, but doesn’t really feel.  
For someone who fought so hard to be sitting in this classroom, he can’t focus on the lesson right now. Why is he feeling like this―as if his heart is wringing itself out like a sponge in his chest? He stares hard at his notebook, which is covered in ink but hardly any words are written. Has he completely messed things up with Ladybug?  
_I just want her to like me._  
He didn’t know anything about people his age. He wonders if he should have listened to his father.

Marinette, for the third time, catches herself grinding her teeth.  
Tikki had talked her down from the worst of her own wrath in the washroom, and she concedes that she had been a little too harsh on Adrien. “Sure, maybe he is just like Chloé and just said anything to get him out of trouble,” Tikki had said, and only later did Marinette take a moment to appreciate that the kwami had only been with her for a day and already knew what to say to come through to Marinette, “...but what if he’s not like her at all, and he was telling the truth?”  
Well, that would make him a pretty decent guy. And it would make Marinette just the opposite.  
It must be because she ended up sitting behind him in class that she can’t stop thinking about him. She tries to focus on Mme Bustier and the board but her eyes keep drifting to honey blonde hair and imagining shiny cat ears nestled within it. His tail had been a leather belt, but she could have sworn it wriggled when she grabbed it yesterday. Do the ears move, too? She had thought nothing of it when they were just strangers, but now that she knew that that same boy was sitting right there in front of her, she was entirely too conscious of the fact that she could just reach out and touch him. The goofy, flirty cat boy was real and he was doodling ladybugs in his composition book. She felt her cheeks run warm.  
_And Chat Noir didn’t lie to you or trick you into anything_ , she repeats to herself as she walks to the front entrance after school. _He didn’t know who you were, either, so why would he pretend?_  
_I guess that was the real him._  
Marinette stopped short when she got outside. It was only apt that the sky had decided to add to her teenaged turmoil by making it rain.  
“Hey,” says a voice, and when she realizes it’s Adrien, she turns away shamefully. He probably hates her.  
He fidgets with his umbrella. “I just wanted you to know―”  
“You were just trying to cover for Chloé,” she finishes, sounding more irritated than she intended. _Zut._  
He looks away. “I’ve never been to school before. I’ve never had friends. It’s all sort of new to me.” Although he feels unsure, he offers his umbrella to Marinette, and she is stunned enough that she just takes it, nevermind that she lives across the street.  
When it closes on her, there is a moment of just rain noise before they break it with their laughter.  
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Chaton.”  
“See you tomorrow, M’lady.”

**Author's Note:**

> Adrien gets into his car, nevermind that he also lives across the street. Thanks for reading!


End file.
